Joseph Gabriel Imbert

Joseph-Gabriel Imbert, also known as Frère Imbert^[1][2][3] (1666–1749), was a French painter and Carthusian monk. Among his pupils were Adrien Manglard^[2] and Joseph Siffred Duplessis.^[4]

Flight into Egypt, Joseph Gabriel Imbert, Chartreuse Notre-Dame-du-Val-de-Bénédiction [fr], Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

Biography

Imbert was born in Occitania in 1666. He was active in the charterhouse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, but was originally from Marseille, as in a note on his Fuite en Egypte it is detailed that «[E]t les deux autres représentant la Fuitte en Egipte […] peint[s] par un frère chartreux de ladite maison nommé Imbert de Marseille, ces trois tableaux sont forts haut[s] et remplissent depuis le haut des stales presque jusqu’à la voûte»^[1] He was a pupil of French painter and art theorist Charles Le Brun.^[4]

He realized several paintings for the Carthusian Monastery of Notre-Dame-du-Val-de-Bénédiction in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, near Gard, Occitania, including a large painting depicting the flight into Egypt,^[1] a copy of Guido Reni's Annunciation,^[1][5] an oil on panel depicting the Marquise of Ganges in the Cartusian habit of Saint Roseline of Villeneuve,^[6] and a Compassion de la Vierge (Compassion of the Virgin), meanwhile lost. Regarding the lost painting, it was recorded that it was "the Compassion of the Holy Virgin, painted by a Carthusian brother of the said house named Imbert of Marseille, [it was] very high and fill from the top of the stalls almost to the vault."^[1]

Frère Imbert executed also "smaller paintings, works on easel of more intimate expression, and copies of paintings of the preceding century, such as Nicolas Mignard's Annunciation."^[1] Imbert "was not only a talented copyist. He was [also] able to elaborate powerful compositions, such as [his] Flight into Egypt […]"^[1]

Imbert became a Carthusian monk, and later opened an art school in either Marseille or Avignon.^[7] There, he taught Joseph Siffred Duplessis^[4] and Adrien Manglard.^[2] The latter reportedly learned figure painting with him.^[2]

The figure of Frère Imbert is still relatively shrouded in mystery.^[8]

Gallery

• 
  The Marquise de Ganges in the Cartusian habit of Saint Roseline of Villeneuve, Notre-Dame Church, Gard, Occitania
• 
  The Annunciation, Notre Dame Church, Gard, Occitania
• 
  Flight into Egypt, Chartreuse Notre-Dame-du-Val-de-Bénédiction, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon